Thursday, April 8, 2010

So...What do you eat?

Lots! More than I ate before I started this whole thing!

Let's start at the begining. I knew that the transition would be kind of difficult (especially financially, let's face it, healthy food costs a lot, don't even get me started.), I didn't want to throw food away, but I was anxious to start. So I started just doing what I could, stop drinking milk, coffee, soda. Stop eating junk food and processed food, this went on for about 4 days until I could make it to the store. I started at Trader Joes (thank heaven it's in Corvallis now!). I used to just love it for the fantastic candy/goodies they make, this time I completely skipped that section (ok, not skipped, it's above the freezer isle for heaven sake! but I did not reach up!). I bought a ton of fruits (mostly frozen) and vegies, beans, oatmeal, Agave nectar (sugar sub), rice milk, choco soy milk, nuts and some whole wheat flour...that's the gist. This was a small start, I didn't bring my list I had been compiling, so it was off the top of my head.

In the morning, I wait until I"m really hungry (the only time your body can cleanse and detoxify is when your stomach is empty) and then I make myself a delicious fruit smoothy. I switch it up a lot, pineapple, strawberries, mangos, blueberries, pom seeds, sometimes some cocoa powder or choco soy milk as the liquid, plus ground flax seeds, soooo good! My mom happened to have a Magic Bullet collecting dust in her garage, so I snagged it (thanks mom!). It really is fantastic and if I had to lug out the blender every morning and clean it, I so wouldn't do it. My husband has one every morning too, only difference is that he puts this disgusting meal replacement crap in it that smells like rotting meat (it has bovine collostrum in it, think on that for a second...). Anyway, totally healthy and great. You are supossed to eat fruit first thing in the morning and wait at least 30 minutes to eat anything else, it digests super fast. If you add a carb with it, it will acctually stop you up.

Now sometimes I need a little snack before lunch, sometimes not. I know there are plenty of people that don't eat breakfast at all, so this would be a great, easy addition to the nothing you eat already. And for some people it wouldn't be enough, so you just wait your 30 and then eat some oatmeal or something? If I need a snack I eat some nuts (Trader Joes has a delicious honey seaseme covered almond) of some kind or down a glass of water first.

Lunch: So far, my fav thing I've made is (what some call) Cowboy caviar:
chopped tomatoes
chopped avocados
corn
black beans (or any kind, or two kinds, or 3 if you really like beans, but now it might be more of a bean salad...)
chopped peppers (green, red, orange, yellow, all of the above, I've tried them all, can't go wrong)
diced red/yellow/white onion (red probably best)
a drizzle of olive oil
garlic salt
sea salt and pepp
half a lime
Sooooooooooooooooooooo yummy!!! Eat like a salad or on a chip. So far fave chips for this dish are Tostidos scoops: Hint of jalepeno. I have made it for lots of people and for just myself. I think from now on, I will leave out the avocado and just dice it as I dish it so it doesn't go brown because I make a big batch and then eat it for a couple of days. Anyway, probably a staple for now and Bret loves it too!

Sometimes I have oatmeal for lunch. The steelcut kind, not the quaker instant kind.
The book ultimatly says a fresh salad with lots of veggies is ideal for lunch, that's the goal!

Roasted red and green peppers with garlic and onion and fried polenta....yummo. I wasn't sure I would like this one, but I did! Most of the things I make are derived from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch because it's the only vegan cook book I have so far. But a great website is goveg.com and that leads you to lots of tips and recipies. Anyway, back to polenta. In the book it calls for making your own polenta, but I had bought the premade in a roll kind. So, I sliced up the peppers and diced up the onions and I only had dry chopped garlic, but it worked fine. You toss all of this with sea salt and pepper in a bowl with olive oil and stick in on a roasting pan in the oven for about 20. Meanwhile, putting a little bit of oil (should be coconut oil, it's best for high heat cooking, I'll go on more about this later) all I had was olive, sliced up slabs of polenta and fried both sides for about 7 minutes each. Pulled out vegies, put on polenta, washed it down with choco soy milk. This was my first official vegan meal that I cooked myself. I was sooo proud! And it was soo yummy! Bret tried it the next day, lets just say he wasn't a fan....

Burritos:
Whole wheat tortillas. Black beans. Guac. Tofu sliced like chicken (it really just takes on whatever flavor it is surrounded by). mushrooms. green pepper. Great!! I invited mom over for this and she enjoyed it too. This is when I tried the cheese, let's just say I didn't put it in my burrito :(

I did try to make pancakes from scratch with a recipie in SKBITK, it didn't go well. I believe my problem was that it called for whole wheat pastry flour and I just had whole wheat flour. The pancakes would turn to rubber on the top right away and then never cook all the way through. Disapointing for all involved. I will try again though!

Ok, so that's it for now, I'm almost caught up to what it happening right now!

6 comments:

What cheese did you get? Rice cheese (mozzarella and pepper jack version) is one of the best alternative cheeses I found when I was lactose intolerant a few years ago. It will NEVER be like real cheese, but you'll soon find the "best" cheeses aren't anything like the real thing, they're just the ones that suck less.

I also have Tofutti Mozzarella slices, but I haven't tried them. This was all Fred Meyer had, I'm going to have to make a trip up to Whole Foods. Some of the problem is that some of the "fake" cheeses still have milk protein in them, so I'm trying to avoid that. But thanks for the suggestion, I'll try to find it!

Loved your Cowboy Dip Stuff... need to make it for myself...could easily eat this on the run for lunches and such :) So when are you going to start working out with me?!? I need a work out partner BAD!

i'm loving reading these posts. I'm inspired to implement SOME of these things. I still love milk (and meat) :)But I really would like to add more fruits and veggies to the whole families diet. Your Cowboy caviar sounds very similar to a recipe that 'Ms Amy' gave me called Mexican caviar -- it is AWESOME!!! Everyone loves it. I'll have to check the recipe and see what the differences are and pass them to you so you could give it a whirlAnd a tip to keep your avocado from turning brown is to keep the pit of the avocado and throw it into your mixture after your done. Just eat around it -- it keeps it from turning brown -- it's pretty cool.

Keri- thanks! It would a great lunch for you to take to work! You could even put it in a burrito :)

April- Thankyou. I'm so gald I could inspire you in some way. I've been trying to put more fruits and veggies in our diet for a while, but I'm an all or nothing kind of person, so this was the only thing that has worked for me. I hope you have success!I would love to try Ms. Amy's recipie :)And I do the pit thing, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't...lime juice seems to help too. I also read somewhere about using saranwrap and pushing it all the way down to the dip getting as much air out as possible because that's what turns it brown? It's worked ok too, but I want it to last up to 3 or 4 days when I make a lot. Thanks for the tip though!